Choosing Directors?
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Topic: Choosing Directors?
Posted By: AngelSong76
Subject: Choosing Directors?
Date Posted: 8/01/07 at 9:28pm
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Question for the group: How do you go about choosing directors? Do you have a panel interview potential directors so that you can see if their vision lines up with the theatre's? Do you just put the list of shows out there and let people come in and say they want to direct a certain show? We have a season picked out, but don't have the directors yet. There are plenty of past directors, but our committee wants to standardize the way we do things. We were thinking of asking for resumes and organizing them for future use, as well as having a panel interview with potential directors.
What do you guys think??
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Replies:
Posted By: B-M-D
Date Posted: 8/02/07 at 12:33pm
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In my neck of the woods it varies wildly. Some ct's solicit directors by asking for shows they'd like to direct and then choosing a season after interviews. Others pick a season and interview interested directors for particular shows. My home ct chooses a season and then solicits from a list of directors that are ceritfied to direct at our ct before soliciting other "outside" directors. In a nutshell it's a process that was put in to place to minimize directors breezing in to direct a show and not contributing much else to the group or understanding what we're about. For the most part it seems to have worked out pretty well. While the drawback is a little bit of a limited directing pool, it gives us place to start, with fairly known and trusted entities. The thought being that a resume tells you nothing about the person you're getting and an interview, while helpfull in determining things like "concept" for the show and how articulate they might be, it is still not a great indicator of how they'll work with our group.
For actors we have no such limitation and we seem to attract a fairly broad and talented pool of performers for most of our productions. ------------- BD 
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." |
Posted By: eveharrington
Date Posted: 8/02/07 at 2:18pm
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my main CT basically says that you have to asst. direct before you direct so that you can have an understanding of what directing involves at this particular venue. Once you've done that you just volunteer and the director picks the show they want to direct. We recently enacted a script committee to approve the scripts, and sometimes you might get moved from spring to fall so that we don't do back to back musicals or all male casts etc., but the director ultimately picks the show. We find we get a lot more volunteers to direct this way than if we picked the shows and hoped someone wanted to direct it. It's my favorite thing about this theater. ------------- "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights." |
Posted By: PWProducer
Date Posted: 8/02/07 at 3:27pm
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Our group decides on the production(s) and producers are selected for the show from the Board of Directors. The producers then place notices in the local paper that we are seeking staff for the upcoming production(s) and invite folks to send in letters of interest along with resumes. In addition to applications for director we take applications for SM, choreograper, vocal director, orchestra director, and costume coordinator.
We then interview the potential directors deciding on that position before proceeding to the other positions.
Unfortunately we don't get a huge number of applications from potential directors--and we pay a good stipend (one of the best in the area). We've taken to asking potential directors if they are interested but even then with mixed success. Thankfully we have a core group of 3-4 individuals we can usually coax into doing a show if need be.
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Posted By: biggertigger
Date Posted: 8/02/07 at 6:25pm
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The many times I have directed I have worked both ways with various theaters. A personnal feeling with selecting the season and then finding a director has made me feel less attached to the show. I have worked on a few where I was not interested in the show but ended up directing and felt I gave a less quality production then if I had a bigger stake in it. Not to say the show was not successful. Also, if the show didn't go over as well as everyone had hoped, the feeling is "blame the director." It could be any reason the show failed, but the director gets the blame. You even have board members that would come to you and say how wonderful the show was and it's not your fault the audience didn't come, but you still get that feeling of blaming you.
------------- The two greatest days in a theater persons life, the day you start a new show and the day the damn thing closes. |
Posted By: upstart
Date Posted: 8/13/07 at 10:29am
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There are pitfalls in any system, but I would prefer to submit shows I want to do, and hope one of my submissions gets selected. That way I get to work shows I am interested and passionate about bringing to the stage.
Plus, I was the recent victim of the pick plays then solicit directors process. I had submitted a play to my home group selecting committee for 4 consecutive years and it finally got picked for the 2007 season. Then, when it came time to pick the director, I applied and another person new to the group applied as well. After a month delay, they ended up selecting the new guy because "he had an excellent resume".
Needless to say, I was upset, and very hurt. I had been a member for 8 years, had directed there before, submitted & promoted this show for 4 years and they gave it to a non-member because he had a nice resume.
I have not been back to that group since. So, I strongly feel that picking a show & director as a package is the best route.
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Posted By: eveharrington
Date Posted: 8/13/07 at 2:10pm
 That's OUTRAGEOUS! ------------- "If nothing else, there's applause... like waves of love pouring over the footlights." |